


Trials and Transfigurations

by SouthernContinentSkies



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, Logic puzzle, day in the life, this is why teachers drink
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-30
Updated: 2020-10-30
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:01:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 464
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26433820
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SouthernContinentSkies/pseuds/SouthernContinentSkies
Summary: Professor Minerva McGonagall has a very busy day of teaching. Four different classes, with four Houses, four different Transfiguration lessons, and four reasons to send students to detention! Can you disentangle which is which?Note: this is a logic puzzle (grid included), NOT a prose fic.
Comments: 18
Kudos: 14
Collections: Fic In A Box





	Trials and Transfigurations

**Author's Note:**

  * For [FeatheryMinx](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FeatheryMinx/gifts).



> If you are having difficultly solving the puzzle, see the End Notes for reminders of canon and other general information incorporated (but not outright stated) in the hints.

Professor Minerva McGonagall, Head of Gryffindor House and teacher of Transfiguration, had a full day of teaching today. She taught four classes, each to a different year of a different House, and each teaching a different Transfiguration lesson. The use of Time Turners being heavily restricted, each class was at a different time. And, as usual for Hogwarts, shenanigans among her students abounded, and she was forced to send a student to detention in each of her four classes. Using the hints below, and your basic knowledge of the operation of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, identify which year and House met at which time, learned which lesson, and had a student sent to detention for which offense. The complete list of items in each category can be found below the grid.

  * The morning started off with a bang. In her very first class, Minerva gave one student detention for hexing another when her back was turned. How on earth had he learned such a high-level spell so quickly? Hopefully, the 4th-years in her second class would be calmer. 
  * Immediately after lunch, Minerva failed to notice the covert distribution of Puking Pastilles in her classroom, as she assumed it was merely indigestion. The culprit was soon identified, however, and earned himself TWO detentions; not only was the stunt disruptive to the lesson, but the Pastilles might have been toxic to the mammals the students were Transfiguring. 
  * Later in the day, one of her Slytherin students resorted to decidedly non-magical means to express his frustration with a classmate. The stress of studying for NEWTs must be getting to them. 
  * Insects, being less complex than most vertebrates, were always Minerva's choice for the youngest students in her classes, as they first started with animal Transfiguration. 
  * Minerva was very fond of her own House, but she did wish they were slightly less well-acquainted with Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. 
  * Minerva spent some time before dinner removing a dark splotch from one of the hares: the result of an ink spill on a perfectly-Transfigured haversack. 
  * While Minerva was not entirely surprised to find a member of this scholarly House attempting unauthorized human Transfiguration on themselves, she didn't think it would have been this particular student - after all, his Transfigured animal still had a noticeable china pattern on it! Detention, sir! What were you thinking?? 



  


[](https://ibb.co/bPZxsT0)

(You can click the image for a higher-res version.)

  


**Class Times:** 9:00am, 10:00am, 1:00pm, 2:00pm  
**Houses:** Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Slytherin, Gryffindor  
**Years:** 1st, 3rd, 4th, 7th  
**Lessons:** Jacks into junebugs; mice into mittens; teapots into turtles, hares into haversacks  
**Reasons for Detention:** hexing a classmate; attempting unauthorized human Transfiguration; distributing Puking Pastilles; dumping ink on a classmate's hair  
  
  
  
  
  
Break for the "spoilers" in the End Notes, if you wish to avoid them.

  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> **Note: the comments contain spoilers for the solution.**
> 
> Canon and other facts the puzzle hints assume you know:  
> \- OWLs are taken by 5th-year students, and NEWTs by 7th-years.  
> \- Puking Pastilles are a Weasley's Wizard Wheezes product.  
> \- The "scholarly House" is Ravenclaw.  
> \- Lunch happens sometime between 11 and 1.  
> \- Mice and hares are mammals; junebugs and turtles are not.  
> \- Junebugs are insects; the other three are, uh, not.  
> \- Teapots are (sometimes) made of china, and (sometimes) have patterns on them. Mittens and haversacks, being clothing and luggage, would not be made of china.
> 
> Things that are more in the realm of opinion (e.g., "A Hufflepuff wouldn't do _that!_ ") should not be assumed unless stated.


End file.
